LinkedIn Corp.
said Monday it paid nearly $6 million in back wages and damages to 359 current and former employees who the U.S. Labor Department says weren't properly paid for overtime worked between February 2012 and February 2014.

LinkedIn also agreed to inform managers that overtime work must be recorded and paid for, and that they shouldn't retaliate against employees who raise concerns about workplace issues.

"This practice harms workers, denies them the wages they have rightfully earned and takes away time with families," said
Susana Blanco,
a Labor Department district director in San Francisco.

A LinkedIn spokeswoman said the Labor Department investigation focused on a "small subset" of the company's sales force in offices in California, Illinois and New York. LinkedIn said it had 2,400 salespeople as of June 30.

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It is unclear whether LinkedIn's settlement will have broader implications in the technology industry, where sales teams similar to LinkedIn's push advertising and enterprise products.

Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, some salespeople are exempt from overtime laws, but state laws often conflict with the federal law, causing confusion.

For instance, in July, the California Supreme Court ruled against Time Warner in a case that made more salespeople eligible for overtime.

In addition, many computer-system analysts, computer programmers and software engineers are also exempt from overtime requirements.

LinkedIn said its settlement was more of a technical error than a mischaracterization of employment status. It said it had already begun to correct the error by the time it was contacted by the Labor Department.

"This was a function of not having the right tools in place for some employees and their managers to track hours properly," the spokeswoman said. "LinkedIn has made every effort possible to ensure each impacted employee has been made whole," she said.

In a release, the Labor Department praised LinkedIn for cooperating with the investigation.